


Shakespeare Quotes and Love Notes

by watcherofworlds



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-07-23
Updated: 2016-07-23
Packaged: 2018-07-26 07:43:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7565848
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/watcherofworlds/pseuds/watcherofworlds
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A few days after the incident with Steve and Lorraine, Colonel Phillips' secretary, Peggy begins finding love notes on her desk. They are never signed, so she doesn't know who's leaving them, although she has her suspicions, and though they are clearly meant for her they never address her specifically- each one contains nothing but a single Shakespeare quote, though they are no less romantic for all of that.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shakespeare Quotes and Love Notes

**Author's Note:**

> I originally wrote this fic for a contest on Wattpad. It must have been good, because I won! Anyway, comments are greatly appreciated. Let me know what you think!

There was a note on Peggy's desk. It sat there looking suspiciously non-descript, her name written on it in a slanting cursive hand that she didn't recognize. She picked it up and unfolded it carefully. On the inside was written a single line- _I do love nothing in the world so well as you._

She recognized that line-it was from Much Ado About Nothing, her favorite Shakespeare play, if only because it was one of the few with a happy ending. Her eyes flicked down to the bottom of the page, but sadly whoever had left the note hadn't signed it. Smiling in spite of herself, she folded it back up and stashed it in one of her desk drawers, deciding to leave the mystery to be solved another day.

When she came to her desk the next morning there was another note on it, her name written on it in the same slanting cursive hand as before. She unfolded it quickly, eager to read it.

_Doubt that the stars are fire_ , it said.

_Doubt that the sun doth move;_

_Doubt truth to be a liar;_

_But never doubt I love._

So it was another Shakespeare quote then, and from Hamlet this time. Peggy despised that play, but she supposed she couldn't blame the author of the note for managing to find one of the few bright spots in an otherwise dreary and depressing work. She wondered for the second time who was leaving these notes. She immediately discarded the idea that it was Howard-she would have recognized his handwriting, and anyway that wasn't the kind of relationship they had. She wondered briefly if it could be Steve, but he didn't seem to be that eloquent, and besides, she had absolutely no idea if he'd ever read Shakespeare in his life. She sighed, placed the note in the drawer with the other one, and went about her business, hoping that the mystery would solve itself eventually.

Peggy came into work the next day expecting to find another note on her desk, and was not disappointed. She sat down to read it this time. She strongly suspected it contained another Shakespeare quote, and this too proved to be correct.

_I love you more than words can wield the matter_ , she read.

_Dearer than eyesight, space, and liberty._

Peggy frowned as she placed this note in the drawer with the others. King Lear? Now that seemed an odd choice, but it did prove that whoever was leaving the notes did know enough about Shakespeare to know that there was even anything about love in King Lear at all. She sincerely hoped she'd be able to figure out who it was soon, or else she'd go mad.

Another day brought another note and another Shakespeare quote.

_Such is my love, to thee I so belong,_

_That for thy right myself will bear all wrong._

_A sonnet_ , Peggy mused, placing the note in the drawer. _He's breaking form._

The next day there was no note on her desk, but Steve's friend Bucky Barnes was leaning up against it, his devil-may-care smile playing with the corners of his mouth. He handed her a folded piece of paper and disappeared. Peggy nearly tore it in her eagerness to read it.

_The course of true love never did run smooth_ , it said.

If the method of this particular note's delivery hadn't completely convinced her that Steve was the one who had been leaving them, the line from A Midsummer Night's Dream did-it was almost...apologetic, as if the author of the note was saying, "I'm sorry I screwed up, but no one ever said that love was easy." She decided to give it one more day, and then she would talk to Steve about it and find out for sure.

The next, and if everything went well, last note Peggy found on her desk, like the first, contained only a single line- _Have I caught thee, my heavenly jewel?_ She tossed the note in her drawer, leaped to her feet, and went to find Steve. When she found him she pulled him out of the view of prying eyes and kissed him, kissed him the way Lorraine had kissed him not more than a few days ago, kissed him the way she'd been wanting to for a long time now. Steve pulled back before she wanted him to, looking startled, which made her laugh. What other outcome had he expected from those notes? He opened his mouth to speak.

"Yes," she said before he could get any words out. "Yes, you have caught me, and I'd thank you to never let me go."

"Oh," Steve replied quietly. "All right." He wrapped his arms around her, apparently not wary of being seen, and she was content.


End file.
